Mary Anne's Second Mom
by CNJ
Summary: A onechapter short story on Mary Anne's feelings on her mom and stepmom...Sharon has an accident in April of the BSC's first year in college, which brings up Mary Anne's fear of losing another mom.


Hi, fellow BSC fans! This one-shot fanfiction piece is when the BSC are in their first year of college, that spring. It's just a one-chapter story, a short one.

_Disclaimer_: Mona Vaughn is from Betsy Haynes" Fabulous Five series, not a creation of the current author. Enjoy!

**Mary Anne's Second Mom**

_By_: CNJ

_PG-13_

**Mary Anne:**

I'd finished my exam early and was waiting for everyone else to finish. My mind is often pensive after an English exam, especially one with a lot of poetry.

Hard to believe that it was early April. I've been here at Staten University in New York City for almost a year. The Big Apple is my home.

My mind wandered over to the exams we took back in high school when my friends and I used to live in Stoneybrook, Connecticut. My mind was now drifting to each of my friends.

Back in middle and high school, we used to be the Baby-Sitters Club or BSC for short and have parents call us for baby-sitting. It was like a mini-business. We'd have meetings three afternoons a week at Claudia Kishi's house.

When we graduated from high school, we'd trained some of our former charges to take over the club when we left Stoneybrook for college. I'd heard from my friend Kristy Thomas that they were keeping the club up as well as we had. Kristy now goes to Fellowdean U. which is only a short walk from where Mona Vaughn and I live.

Mona joined the BSC in 11th grade and since Mona is here at Staten U. we decided to be roommates. I wondered how Claudia was doing at Granite U. in Minnesota. And how Stacey was doing at Aberdine U. in Vermont.

In fact, Stacey and I had e-mailed each other the other night and she told me that she'd just finished a killer term paper for her Theories in Geophysicist Astronomy class. Stacey's the math and science whiz of our group, not to mention the class valedictorian, while Claudia's the artist of our bunch.

My stepsister, Dawn, had also e-mailed from Tucson U. in Arizona, where she is studying archeology and marine biology.

The twins in our group, Anna and Abby Stevenson, are in New Jersey, where Anna is studying music and Abby's into drama, law, and sports. Abby tried out and made the football team there along with a group of other women. That was so great; I'd been happy for her when she made it as well as happy for womankind in general. Bit by bit, finally civilization is moving forward.

Feeling warm, I fanned myself with my exam paper until Professor Riggs called that time was up and we passed our exams forward. A few students groaned.

I was sooo glad class was over and it was Friday, so I could head to my room and change into something cooler. It was probably sixties, temperature-wise, but I felt so _HOT_ and was starting to sweat. I get warm easily.

Once class ended, I shot out of there and headed to my dorm. Wow, it felt so good to get into a nice thin T-shirt and ratty shorts! I didn't have to work at the campus bookstore that afternoon, so I had the rest of the weekend free.

I noticed that the light on the answering machine was blinking and I checked the phone messages. One was from my dad, saying that my stepmom, Sharon, had been in some kind of accident. Oh, my God! I gasped, then listened again, starting to shake. Dad said that she was all right, but might have to stay in the hospital overnight. Some kind of boating freak accident. Mona came in just as I was listening again.

"Mary Anne...are you all right?" she gasped.

"I'm not sure." My voice shook as I pulled an overnight bag out and began packing some things to head to Stoneybrook for the night. "I have to see if Sharon's all right. I'll be gone overnight."

"Need me for support?" Mona asked. I hesitated a minute, then nodded.

"Let me call my dad first." I told her.

* * *

As things turned out, Mona was able to come. She'd stay with her mom while I stayed with my dad and Sharon. I'd talked to Dawn and she'd flown in. All of us reached the hospital almost at the same time later that night. Dawn got there about an hour after Mona and I did. "Dawn!" I cried and we hugged. "Oh, Mary Anne..." Dawn kept an arm around me and hugged Mona also. "Any word on Mom?"

"Not yet." Dad shook his head. "Her arm's been set, but she had a mild concussion, so the doctors want to keep her here overnight.

* * *

**Mona:**

I think we all drifted off to sleep because the next thing I knew, I heard a doctor tell Mary Anne's dad, "...she's coming to..." Dawn was awakening too and she gently shook Mary Anne awake. Mary Anne jumped as she woke up, her dark eyes wide and frightened.

"Is she...?" Mary Anne quavered. "She's fine," Dr. Rosweig assured her. "You can go in two at a time. She's a bit groggy, but coherent and fine." Boy, did a flood of tears fill Mary Anne's eyes once she saw Sharon. Sharon was awake, but sleepy and her arm was in a sling.

"Hey, hey...it's so good to see you," Sharon whispered to both of us. Then she slowly reached up and tried to wipe Mary Anne's eyes. Mary Anne seemed to be fighting back her tears and I could see her heavy, dark eyebrows start to slant up at the bridge of her nose. The inner tips of her brows climbed upward and ebbed downward above her nose alternately in spurts as she struggled to keep them relaxed as she gripped Sharon's hand.

"Oh, Mom, I'm..." Mary Anne's brows slanted upward again. "s-s-so...s-so r-r-rel-l-li-lieved..." Mary Anne lost her battle with her tears and they spilled down her face. Sharon reached up and wiped them away.

I felt a lump in my own throat just seeing Mary Anne's fear and anguish over the close brush with losing her stepmom. She'd lost her natural mom when she was a baby and that had had an impact on her. Sharon had filled that mother hunger in her life.

Mary Anne clutched her stepmom's hand and cried for a long minute. Then shakily, she groped around for a bundle of tissues and Sharon pointed to the bedside table, with a weak grin. Mary Anne managed a contorted grin as she grabbed tissues and blew her nose.

"I'm...I'm so g-glad you're all right," she whimpered once she regained some measure of control.

"Me too," Sharon whispered. "Thank you for coming, both of you."

* * *

**Mary Anne:**

It was a relief to see that my stepmom was going to be all right. She was back home the next morning. and just needed a few days' rest. As she lay back in her own bed, I helped tuck her in and almost started to cry again.

"Hey, hey, sweetheart..." Sharon poked at my nose affectionately. "Save some for spring break." I managed a shaky smile, but a tear escaped and found its way down my face.

We sat like that for the longest time. I was so grateful I had her in my life. It feels so good having a mother after spending almost twelve years without one.

Sharon had filled that gaping hole in my life when I was thirteen and she married my dad. Once she drifted off to sleep, I headed downstairs.

It feels a bit funny visiting a house I used to live in. I haven't been here since November when Dawn and I had spent Thanksgiving here. The Christmas-Hanukkah holidays hadn't counted too much because during that break, all of us had flown to Germany on a trip Sharon had won for all of us at her work as an architect.

Dawn, Dad, and I made a quick dinner and since the weather was warm, we ate outside. I remembered how this time last year, Dawn and I had been just high school kids.

I remembered how I couldn't wait to get out of Stoneybrook. Call it senioritis or something, but most of us BSC had been sick of living in Stoneybrook and were restless to get out on our own.

But now, I like visiting here and have a lot of good-feeling memories about Stoneybrook. I guess it's because this is where I met each of my friends and the BSC started.

_Storyline Copyright 2001_ by **CNJ**


End file.
